Every Summer hundreds of college baseball players migrate north to Cape Cod to go make magic on local high school fields for fans to enjoy. There is nothing more beautiful in the world of baseball than the Cape Cod League, you can spend all day on the beach, then pull up a camping chair and watch the best talent in the nation without having to even pay for a ticket. As a fan of the college game I love seeing players on the Cape have an incredible season before they head back to school for fall ball, so here are two players who did just that.

First up is brand Niu Arkansas Razorback Maika Niu, a player whose style of play is just as fun to watch as his name is to say. Maika started his collegiate career off at University of New Orleans where in his first two years of college ball he hit .290 with 8 doubles, 4 triples, and 10 home runs in only 193 at bats. He then decided to take his offensive production to Huntington, West Virginia to represent Marshall University and the Thundering Herd. Where despite the lack of hooves, he was incredibly productive member of the Herd, hitting .276 with 14 doubles, 5 triples, 15 home runs and 14 stolen bases. Following that this summer while playing for the Falmouth Commodores, he announced his plans to join the Arkansas Razorbacks for the 2026 season.

Now that we’re all caught up let’s talk about what Maika has been up to this summer. In just 132 at bats for Falmouth he has hit .280 while picking up four doubles, one triple, and eight home runs. On paper eight home runs may not seem like a ton, but it’s crazy to think about 6% of his at bats with a wood bat against the best pitchers in the nation he was hitting a round tripper. He was also 15/19 on stolen bases as well, because why not? This performance earned him the starting centerfield spot during the CCBL All-Star Game and Home Run Contest. Ultimately he continued his hot streak all season long earning himself Cape Cod League MVP honors, an award that in recent years has gone to talents such as Ethan Petry and Travis Bazanna, pretty decent company if you ask me. Needless to say I think he’ll be an answer to a lot of questions fans have regarding Arkansas outfield for this upcoming season.

Moving along to the other side of the ball, it would be a massive swing and miss to not mention what Tyler Pitzer got up to this summer for the Y-D Redsox. What he did was make a lot of hitters actually swing and miss, holding a minuscule 0.34 era in 26.1 innings pitched where he struck out 36 earning himself the BFC Whitehouse Most Outstanding Pitcher Award. Anyone who can go up and spend the summer pitching to a sub-1 ERA against the best hitters in the nation is pretty good in my book, and those guys are even better in my book when they commit to play for my friend Brian O’Connor as well. That’s exactly what Tyler did this summer, announcing that after his time at South Carolina he has decided to make the move to Starkvegas to be with Mississippi State for the 2026 season. 

In his time at South Carolina Pitzer worked to a 5.63 ERA in 72 innings pitched in his first two years as a Gamecock where he also picked up 89 strikeouts. Pitzer was highly touted out of high school and had a bit of learning curve adjusting to the SEC level, however with this new found confidence I expect there to be some adjustments to the scouting report regarding what this guy is doing on the mound.

Selfishly, I’m very excited at the potential of these two guys squaring off in the SEC, sure they’ve played each other on the Cape, but it always makes me happy to see players competing against each other with different teams in different locations.

The world of baseball is incredibly small, that’s the beautiful thing about the game, the more you play it and the further you can go with it, the more and more you will be running into familiar faces. There was nothing cooler as a college ball player than running into one of your old friends from summer ball during the season, or just at any point in your life. Those teammates become an instant time machine to the past, and it’s awesome.